Publishers Weekly
★ 07/29/2019
The Word of Life Christian Church in Chadwicks, N.Y., seemed a little odd, but the upstate town and then the entire country were shocked by the 2015 beating death of 19-year-old Lucas Leonard by the congregation, including his own parents. In her excellent debut, journalist Ashline details what led to the murder, the church’s fanatical founder, his strange death, and the succession of his daughter, who inflicted bizarre emotional and verbal abuse on her congregation. One method of control was through threatening action for any sexual misconduct, which spiraled into allegations of child abuse against Leonard and his 17-year-old brother, Chris. When locked in the church and confronted by the pastor, the pastor’s family, and the boys’ parents, they were beaten and whipped until they “confessed” to their sins. Even then, the abuse went on for hours, until Lucas was left for dead. Ashline then follows the trials of nine members of the cult and details the mounds of evidence against them. Most were defiant, though after one defendant received a lengthy prison sentence, the rest agreed to pleas for shorter jail time. In the end, only Lucas’s father seems to realize the how and why of the tragedy and accepts his own guilt in a jailhouse letter written to the author. Meticulously researched, this is a gripping account, but it’s not for the faint-hearted. Agent: Lane Heymont, Tobias Literary Agency/Seymour Agency Partners. (Aug.)
Mary Cummings
"Susan Ashline tells a terrifying true tale in Without a Prayer. Not long ago, in upstate New York, a self-ordained pastor, spewing twisted scripture and claiming a direct line to God, entered the minds of his flock and led them into a world of unrelieved malice and ultimately violence. What shocks is how swiftly he was able to enter the minds of his followers who came to believe that he alone knew what was right and what they must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Without a Prayer will haunt you with its disturbing evidence of the fragility of civilized norms and the power of madmen in their absence."
Laura Thompson
"This book feels compelled by compassionate outrage, all the more so for being written with such cool and controlled precision. With her sharp instinct for the right detail Susan Ashline brilliantly conjures the small town setting in which the Word of Life cult managed to flourish, and makes the ensuing horror story seem quite alarmingly real. She also shows how evil can live among us, banal for all its excesses, bizarrely consoling to those who fall under its spell."
James Presley
"Susan Ashline’s narrative of group pathology is a cautionary tale of toxic mind control over a vulnerable religious flock. The consequences include unwarranted inhumane treatment for many—and a life of torment punctuated by death for one, the youth Lucas Leonard. The nightmare doesn’t quite reach the nadir of the Jim Jones mass tragedy, but it’s enough to inspire a series of Stephen King horror stories. The moral: If someone claims he or she has a direct line to God and you must obey whatever you’re ordered, RUN! For your life."
BookReporter
"A fascinating, heartbreaking, and fraught page-turner. Ashline avoids easy judgments in favor of letting the story unfold and the evidence speak for itself. A powerful and absorbing contribution to the libraries of true crime, sociology and long-form journalism."
Booklist
"An in-depth portrait of a cult and its downfall after the murder of one of its members. Readers looking for a cult origin story will find this a captivating read."
Michael Benson
"There was something sinister going on behind the walls of the Word of Life Christian Church outside Utica, New York. In her debut book, Without a Prayer, Susan Ashline removes those walls brick by brick, revealing a terrifying world of religion gone awry, a congregation whose collective willingness to believe overwhelmed their ability to think, a cult whose members blindly followed a madman with horribly violent results. Ashline not only explains with clarity what happened, but even more impressively offers a psychologically satisfying answer to the question of why."
Booklist
An in-depth portrait of a cult and its downfall after the murder of one of its members. Readers looking for a cult origin story will find this a captivating read.
